misery

From Middle English miserie, from Old French miserie (modern: misère), from Latin miseria, from miser, equivalent to miser +‎ -y. Doublet of misère.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹɪ/
• (General American) enPR: mĭzʹə-rē, mĭzʹrē, IPA^(key): /ˈmɪz(ə)ɹi/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: mis‧ery

misery (countable and uncountable, plural miseries)

1. Great unhappiness; extreme pain of body or mind; wretchedness; distress; woe.

   Synonyms: dejection, grief, sorrow; see also Thesaurus:sadness

   Ever since his wife left him you can see the misery on his face.

   • 1578–1579, Edmund Spenser, “Prosopopoia. Or Mother Hubberds Tale. Dedicated to the Right Honorable the Ladie Compton and Mountegle”, in Complaints. Containing Sundrie Small Poemes of the Worlds Vanitie. Whereof the Next Page Maketh Mention‎, London: Imprinted for VVilliam Ponsonbie, dwelling in Paules Churchyard at the signe of the Bishops head, published 1591, →OCLC:

     For miſerie doth braueſt mindes abate, / And make them ſeeke for that they wont to ſcorne, / Of fortune and of hope at once forlorne.

   • 2008, Charlotte Bingham, The Land of Summer‎:

     It was not just the confusion that unhappiness brings, it was not just the loneliness, it was the despair that accompanies all those emotions that turns unhappiness into utter misery.

   • 2022 January 12, Nigel Harris, “Comment: Unhappy start to 2022”, in RAIL, number 948, page 3:

     Then, in January, a creeping tsunami of train cancellations, triggered by major staff absences as a result of the aggressive transmissibility of Omicron, heaped further misery on rail users.

2. (US and UK, dialects) A bodily ache or pain.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:pain

   • 1868, John Vestal Hadley, Seven Months a Prisoner, page 15:

     and I had a misery in my left breast and shoulder. I was hurt, but knew not how or how much.

3. Cause of misery; calamity; misfortune.

   Synonyms: adversity, woe; see also Thesaurus:woe

5. (Extreme) poverty.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:poverty

   • 1593, anonymous author, The Life and Death of Iacke Straw , Act I:

     The Widdow that hath but a pan of braſſe,
     Muſt pay her Landlord many a groat,
     Or twil be puld out of her throat:
     The rich haue all, the poore liue in miſerie:

6. (archaic) greed; avarice.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:greed

• commiserate
• miser
• miserable

• Myries